Norway : its People, Products, and institutions. By the Rev.
John Bowden. (Chapman and Hall.)—Generally speaking, we can recom-. mend this book of Mr. Bowden's as new and interesting, though we are-aware that it contains some inaccuracies, and we are not always satisfied with its style and opinions. It opens in a rather unpromising manner as regards its author's power of drawing an inference. "Nor- way," he says, "is a country of contrasts. The English traveller, on approaching its shores, and looking at its bold and rugged mountains covered with fir trees almost to their summits, would hardly imagine that it is a country within which the most varied and picturesque scenery is to be found." Now, it so happens that the first sight of the bold and rugged mountains is just what holds out to the traveller the promise of picturesqueness, a promise we need hardly say, abundantly faltMed. But the Norwegian scenery is scarcely as varied as that of other countries which are inferior to it is grandeur. A French traveller wrote in a stranger's book near Christiania, "Je tronve ce pays admirablement beau. 11 enfonce Phalle a dix mine picas sous terre." In one sense this might be true enough, for Italy has nothing to show in the way of sublimity that can compare with the great waterfall, and the noblest fjords of Norway. But Italy has just that variety of scenery which the traveller misses in Norway, and the contrast between the Riviera and the vale of the Arno, shows that na- ture may be prodigal even where she has not the same wealth of material to work with. We have been led into a digression by Mr. Bowden's opening line; and if we commented on the rest of his work at the same length we should also be writing a volume. Fortunately, we do not find many other passages from which we dissent, and Mr. Bowden adds much new information to our stock of knowledge about Norway, for which we can only be grateful. He sketches the ways of society in Christiania, the balls and dinners of the would-be aristocracy, or properly speaking, plutocracy, the constitutional life of the Norwegians, their laws and manners, their facility of divorce, and their compulsory education. There is not so much that is novel in his description of the country and of travelling through it, for we have been almost deluged with books of that class, and some of them have been of a high order. Bat Mr. Bowden is more systematic and exhaustive than flying visitors have either the means or the inclination to make themselves, and thus, while parts of his work are entertaining, the whole is useful.
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